The Neighborhood Energy Retrofit Program in Durham, North Carolina

Durham’s Neighborhood Energy Retrofit Program (NERP) was designed to help households in participating neighborhoods reduce energy use through targeted retrofits and conservation education. Close to 500 homes are receiving subsidized professional retrofits through the program and hundreds of residents will learn ways to reduce energy use through do-it-yourself energy conservation projects and changing resource use habits.

This program targets neighborhoods, not just individual homes. The benefits of focusing on the neighborhood level include strengthening neighborhood cohesion, building a support network of people to continue improving energy efficiency after the program, and economies of scale in conducting the outreach and retrofits. Neighborhood outreach included door-to-door canvassing and do-it-yourself energy upgrade workshops.